Snowflake
by Annise
Summary: The crew of the ship Joshua complete a mission to find some files that could help Zion's cause. But the Captain fears it may have been to easy, and sets out to discover the true nature of 'Operation Snowflake'


**AN:** I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, and I kind of like the characters, but I'm not sure whether it's worth continuing with. It's set before the start of the first film, but only just before. Some of the film characters will appear later, but it's mostly set around OCs, on a new ship, The _Joshua_. Please read and review and tell me if you think it's worth carrying on with.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own The Matrix or any of the characters and concepts. I own the OCs, the _Joshua_ and the plotline. I borrowed the world.

**Snowflake**

A sea of dark coloured umbrellas stretched through the streets ahead, weaving their way through the streets, between the rows of skyscrapers and other tall buildings. The rain poured from above, soaking Livewire to the skin. Her dark hair fell in tangled strings around her face, her fringe dripping onto her face. She was shivering with cold, and her sodden clothes clung to her skin, making it difficult to move with her usual grace and fluidity.

However, somehow this was still preferable to the fiercely regulated environment on the ship. The breeze and freezing rain was refreshing and despite her knowledge that it was all just a simulation, in her mind, sometimes, it still felt more real than reality.

Her eyes carefully scouted the environment for the telltale signs of Agents. There was nothing, but she expected that. She had not been jacked in very long, and the chances of them having detected her yet were small. Still, caution was better than death.

Stepping out into the steady stream of rush hour travellers, she made her way down the street towards the train station. London was her home city. She had spent all but her last year in the matrix there. She knew a lot of it very well, and she knew the rest well enough to navigate through it. She was the logical choice for this mission.

The phone in her pocket rang. She slid it out and put it to her ear.

"Livewire," she said. The voice on the other end was wearing a smile. She could always tell with Loki, her ship's operator.

"We've found it. Take the underground to Euston station. Then I'll call you again." The phone line went dead. Livewire put it back into her inner jacket pocket with a smile.

* * *

Livewire always felt slightly exposed on the underground, despite the dense crush of bodies pressing around her, hiding her from view. Perhaps this was why she always felt exposed. With so many people close, often touching, sharing handholds, it was hard to avoid thinking that in the blink of an eye, any of them could become a black-suited Agent. She shuddered. 

She had only had one run-in with the Agents, on her third mission back into the matrix after being freed. She had run until her legs ached and her lungs burned and they had been right behind her every step of the way. Her escape was down to the skillful directions of the operator, Loki, and a decent dash of good fortune. She had seen the stone-cold glare of the Agents as they burst into the room where she held the phone that was her pathway out of the matrix.

The train squealed its way to a halt and the doors opened onto the station. Livewire pushed her way out between two sweaty businessmen and walked across the platform to make her way up to ground level. She followed the crowds onto the escalator and into the main station.

As the escalator reached the top, her view opened out onto a large open space, crowded with people. To her right, an array of screens showing the times and itineraries of departing train stood above exits, leading to some of the mainline platforms. The information and ticket sales desks were behind her, the main doors leading out of the station were to her right. She stepped out and got out of the way of the people moving up the escalator behind her.

On cue, the phone in her pocket rang. She answered it, saying nothing.

"To your left, follow the man with the beige leather bag wearing the light blue shirt." Livewire looked left, immediately spotting the young man in question, holding a cup of coffee and looking at the departure board as he wandered across the station. She followed him, the phone still to her ear. He was heading towards the café's on one side of the station, but turned, headed towards the toilets.

"Turn right. A door marked staff only. It's unlocked." She looked for the door in question and saw it, to her right. She glanced around her, but no one was looking. She opened the door, which as promised was unlocked, and slipped inside. The door led to a short dingy corridor with bare cement floors and painted brick walls. She walked along it until Loki's voice told her to take a left, into a little office.

The walls were the same cream painted brick, but someone had taken the time to make this little office more homely. Photos and posters lined the walls and a brightly coloured patterned rug sat on the floor. An old desktop computer sat on the desk, the screensaver a bunch of pipes winding in and out of each other. The only furniture besides the desk was an old office chair and a filing cabinet with a missing bottom drawer.

"The filing cabinet. Open the top drawer. What we want is taped to the back of it." Livewire opened the drawer, and reached back behind it. As promised, she found a floppy disk stuck to the drawer with gaffer tape. She pried it free.

"Password on the computer is capital P, capital L, sign, small t, small f, number zero, small r, capital M," Loki informed her. She pushed the mouse, and the password box appeared. Livewire typed in the letters he had told her.

"Original, these guys," she muttered, smiling as the desktop of the computer appeared. She pushed the disk into the machine.

"Ten seconds," Loki said over the phone. Each one of those seconds seemed to take an eternity, before Loki gave the sign, and she removed the disk, replacing it behind the drawer. The computer returned to its screensaver before she had even left the room, which she did promptly.

"Now, get me to the nearest exit," she said.

"Done and done."

* * *

Livewire picked up the phone and the matrix faded, her real eyes opening on the ship. Loki was already beside her, pulling the jack out of the socket in the back of her head. He was grinning broadly, in his crooked, mischievous way. He had cropped black hair and pale blue eyes, along with three day's growth of beard and a newly formed hole in his grey jumper. 

"We did it," he said, his hand on her shoulder as she sat up. She smiled in return, brushing a strand of dry, brown hair out of her face. The hair was considerably shorter here than it was in the matrix, she bore a few more scars and her hands were callused and scratchy.

"Good work, Livewire," their Captain, Rook, said, coming into view from the front of the ship. She gave him a nod of acceptance, her smile fading slightly. Rook was the standoffish type, never spending much time with his crew, but he was a good man, and a good captain. They'd survived many tough situations due to his quick thinking and clever planning.

"Thanks cap'n," she replied. Loki was still grinning, but he started on his way back to the operator station.

"Where are we going now?" she asked, standing up and facing the Captain. He was not looking at her anymore, staring off into space, his eyes slightly glazed over, but Livewire could not tell what emotion was behind that glassy stare.

"We're going back to Zion," he said, and a faint smile turned up the corner of his mouth and he looked back to her. "Get some rest and something to eat. You've had a long day." She nodded, but he had turned away again.

As if it realised that her task was over, her stomach growled. Obeying it, she headed to the mess. Most of the crew would already have eaten while she was on the mission and she expected it to be empty. However, when she got there, Redfoot, her least favourite member of the crew, was sitting, eating a bowl full of the porridge consistency nutrient mush that passed for food on the ship.

He looked up and waved at her when she entered the room, and she acknowledged him with a brief nod as she walked over to get her food. She sat down opposite him simply because it was the only place to sit. Redfoot was a red-haired, blue-eyed, lecherous, arrogant, difficult and occasionally belligerent man. He was on the crew of the _Joshua_ because he was a very good pilot. Livewire conceded this, but she didn't have to like him.

"Well done on the mission," he said. Livewire eyed him suspiciously, taking a bite of her 'meal'. "Really… Loki seemed real pleased when he got the info. He would though, I suppose…" She raised an eyebrow. Redfoot never complimented anyone unless he had an ulterior motive.

"Don't you have a ship to pilot?" She replied. Redfoot shrugged.

"Lumo's got it. It's an easy trip." Livewire rolled her eyes and shovelled another spoonful of mush into her mouth. "So, what was on that disc?" he said. Livewire's mouth twitched at the corners, almost smiling.

"I don't know," she replied, chewing thoughtfully, keeping her voice even so as not to show her amusement at his transparency.

"Oh come on! You got it. You must know." She shrugged, shaking her head. Redfoot glared at her for a long moment, his eyebrows twitching in irritation.

"Those furrows in your forehead ruin your good looks," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. He muttered something that she didn't catch, swallowed the last spoonful of his meal and left the room. Livewire's face broke into a grin as he did and she let out a breath of laughter.

* * *

The _Joshua_ was on its way back to Zion and the mission had been completed successfully, so why did Rook still feel uneasy? There was no Sentinel activity in the area; their journey had been uneventful, to and from broadcast depth. Livewire had executed the mission with her usual efficiency and was back safely. 

There was just a tiny seed in the back of his mind that told him it had been too easy. As he scanned through the information they had gained on the mission, he kept thinking that this was not the kind of information that would be kept taped to the back of a filing cabinet drawer. The person that had compiled it knew about the Agents. They knew that they would be able to find it, just as Loki had found it. So why had they just left it there, not locked, where anyone who knew roughly where to look could find it?

One of the files that Loki had lifted from the disc was entitled 'Operation Snowflake.' It was a coded file, but this was what they had been looking for. Rook set a decryption program running on it, then stood up. It would take a long time, so he might as well try and get some sleep. He stood up.

"You off to bed, captain?" Lumo asked from the station in front of him. All he could see of her was a few bundles of blond hair sticking out around the chair.

"Yes. Wake me in five hours," he said.

"Aye sir," she replied. "Good night."

"Good night."

Rook made his way through the ship to his cabin and opened the door. As captain he was entitled to the largest cabin, but in truth it wasn't that much bigger than the others. He sat down on the edge of the bunk and took his boots off.

When he lay back he could feel his fatigue breaching into his conscious awareness. He closed his eyes, but as he did he felt that twinge of uneasiness as a knot in the bottom of his stomach. He rolled over onto his side, opening his eyes and staring at the wall, frowning.

"You're being crazy," he told himself in a low whisper. He closed his eyes again, but even as sleep took him the uneasiness didn't leave. As he drifted off he knew that his dreams would be troubled. And he was right.

* * *

That's all for now. Please review and let me know what you think. All comments welcome. 


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